Sphinx of Scenarios Unlock Guide (Cities: Skylines)

Sphinx of Scenarios
DLC	Natural Disasters
Building Type	Unique Building
Level / Category	5
Build Cost	₡250,000
Upkeep Cost	₡3,200/week
Milestone Required	Big Town
Entertainment Value	70
Noise Pollution	25
Visitor Capacity	270

The Sphinx of Scenarios is a level 5 unique building that comes with the Cities: Skylines Natural Disasters DLC.

The Sphinx of scenarios holding what appears to be a computer mouse in its right paw.

To unlock the Sphinx of Scenarios, you must:

Win any three scenarios in the game
Reach the Big Town milestone (between 1,800 – 8,000 population, depending on the map)

Scenarios are playable maps that have winning and losing conditions. You’ll find them under the Scenarios tab of the New Game screen.

The ‘Choose Scenario’ tab of the New Game screen

Once you’ve completed three full scenarios, you’ll be able to build the Sphinx from the Level 5 tab of the Unique Buildings menu.

The Sphinx in the Level 5 Unique Buildings tab.

If you’re starting from scratch (never having played any scenarios), you can expect to need at least several hours of gameplay to unlock this building.

Which Scenarios Should I Choose?

This unlock is more difficult if you only have the Natural Disasters DLC and not Green Cities nor Mass Transit (which as of game version 1.16, those are the only other DLCs that provide scenarios).

The Natural Disasters scenarios tend to be more difficult; Natural Disasters and Green Cities give you easier options to pick your three from.

In no particular order, these are the easier scenarios among your options that you could work through:

City of Gardens
Clean Up Crew
Green Power
Ferry Empire

There are also user-made scenarios available on the Steam Workshop, although they do tend to be even more complicated.

Difficulty level aside, you can of course just pick the ones that appeal to you based on the gameplay aspects you enjoy most (e.g., designing public transport or traffic systems).

Below are overviews for each of the official scenarios, to help you choose which three you want to take on.

Natural Disasters Scenarios

Alpine Villages

The Alpine Villages starting map

Alpine Villages places you on a map with very little flat land, and requires you to set up an efficient transport system in a short amount of time.

Win Condition: Transport 250,000 using public transport in under 350 weeks.

You’ll be facing the following disasters:

Disaster	Condition	Severity
Meteor	4 weeks after purchasing the second tile	8.6
Meteor	Week 30	10.0
Forest Fire	Week 100	5.5
Meteor	2 weeks after 4,000 industrial squares are built	6.0

Notes:

The key is to rush to the Big Town milestone as quickly as possible, in order to unlock the metro.
The metro will be crucial to transporting the numbers required to hit the 250,000 target in time.
The challenging terrain will make it difficult and expensive to grow your population and economy early on.
The areas of buildable land are separated by water; this can be used to one’s advantage by setting up local mass transport connections (bus, metro, monorail, etc) between the areas.

By the Dam

The start of the By the Dam scenario

By the Dam is a hard scenario that puts you in charge of growing a small riverside town that is prone to flooding.

Win Condition: Grow population to 65,000 in under 300 weeks

Lose Conditions:

Play 300 game weeks
Population under 1 (i.e., population gets wiped out)

Several meteor strikes will occur throughout this scenario:

Disaster	Condition	Severity
Meteor	8 weeks after purchasing the second tile	3.0
Meteor	2 weeks after reaching 16,000 population	10.0
Meteor	3 weeks after purchasing the third tile	7.0
Meteor	1 week after purchasing the fourth tile	10.0
Meteor	1 week after reaching 55,000 population	4.0

Note: The flooding problem will become more severe when the dam overflows

Floodland

The start of the Floodland map. The water on the bottom left will start moving into your tile very quickly.

For the Floodland scenario, you must survive a constant flood for 240 in-game weeks. You lose if your city gets wiped out (i.e., population under 1) any time under the 15-week mark.

Win Condition:

Play 240 game weeks

Loss Conditions:

Own at least 5 city area tiles
Run out of money (have less than ₡0)
Population under 1 after playing 15 game weeks

Notes:

There are no disaster events in this scenario, but the water level is constantly rising and encroaching on your land.
Since you can only own a maximum of 4 tiles, you cannot simply move away from the flooding.

The water level within 2 game months of the scenario start

Island Hopping

The Island Hopping scenario map. Take note of how little land you get in your starting tile.

Island hopping is a very difficult scenario wherein you have to grow a large population on an archipelago with very little land, while facing major disasters.

Win Conditions:

Have over 250,000 population
Average health over 20%

Loss Conditions:

Run out of money (have less than 0₡)
Population under 1 after playing 15 game weeks

You’ll be dealing with the following disasters:

Disaster	Condition	Severity
Earthquake	Week 10	3.0
Tsunami	Week 40	5.0
Tsunami	Week 70	7.0
Earthquake	Week 100	5.0
Tsunami	Week 120	10.0
Tsunami	Week 170	5.0
Tsunami	Week 230	2.0
Earthquake	Week 300	5.0

Note: Because of the difficulty of this scenario, you may want to stay away from this one if your only goal is to unlock the Sphinx. Only choose this one if you really feel like taking on the challenge!

Tornado Country

In contrast to the Island Hopping map, Tornado Country gives you lots of flat buildable land.

Win Conditions:

Over 260,000 population
Have 20,000 full lifespans lived in your city
Have over ₡1,000,000

Loss Conditions:

Have less than -30,000₡

In Tornado Country, you start off with a small town from which you must grow a large city of 260,000 citizens. You’ll be facing the following disasters:

Disaster	Condition	Severity
Sinkhole	5 weeks after purchasing the second tile	3.0
Tornado	Week 10	5.0
Tornado	Week 30	9.0
Sinkhole	2 weeks after purchasing the third tile	8.0
Tornado	Population over 75,000	7.0
Tornado	Population over 125,000	10.0

Notes:

Although very time consuming because of the very large population required, this is one of the less complicated scenarios in Natural Disasters.
The map is mostly flat with plenty of buildable land.
There is no time limit so you can build and strategize at leisure
You get a fairly generous starting capital (₡500,000)

Mass Transit Scenarios

Ferry Empire

The Ferry Empire starting map

In Ferry Empire, you’ll need to grow your population as well as get a large number of your citizens using ferries.

Win Conditions:

Transport 250,000 people using ship
Have over 25,000 population

Loss Condition:

Have less than 0₡

Note: The low population requirement (only 25,000) and absence of time pressure make this one of the easier and more enjoyable scenarios to complete.

Fix the Traffic

The severe traffic situation at the start of the Fix the Traffic scenario.

This scenario places you in a city with horrible planning and a severe traffic problem.

Win Conditions:

Traffic flow over 82%
Population over 35,000

Loss Conditions:

Population under 25,000
Play 200 game weeks

Notes:

This is the most challenging of the three Mass Transit scenarios, so it’s probably not the best choice if you’re only going for the Sphinx unlock.
Because you’ll lose the scenario if you fall under 25,000 population, simply de-zoning large swathes of buildings is not an option.
There is also a massive garbage problem at the start of the scenario.

Trains!

The Trains scenario starts you off with lots of buildable land and plenty of money in the bank for an efficient early game.

This scenario starts you on an empty map. You’ll need to build a city on it quickly, and set up a large and well-used train network.

Win Conditions:

Construct 210 instances of Train Tracks
Transport 200,000 people using trains

Loss Conditions:

Population under 1,000 at any time after 20 game weeks
Population under 12,000 at any time after 150 game weeks
Run out of money

Notes:

The main difficulty of this scenario lies in the early game: meeting the targets of 1,000 population at 20 weeks and 12,000 at 150 weeks.
Always stay on top of your zoning demands to grow your population as quickly as possible!
After you’ve made it past the 150-week checkpoint, you can take the time to develop your train system to accomplish the main win conditions (train track and passenger requirements).
You get a massive starting capital of 715,000, making it easier to set up your early game quickly.

Green Cities Scenarios

City of Gardens

The Leisure info view shows that the City of Gardens starting map has no leisure coverage at all. Add parks and plazas immediately!

This is a fairly relaxed scenario in which you simply need to grow a small city to a population of 50,000, while also increasing citizen happiness by building parks and plazas.

Win Conditions:

Build 10 different park/plaza buildings
Have 15,000 squares of organic and local produce specialization
Population over 50,000
Have average citizen happiness over 85

Loss Conditions:

Run out of money
Population under 1 after 30 game weeks
Citizen happiness under 60 after 30 game weeks

Notes:

The 50,000 population requirement has no deadline and can be achieved at leisure
The >60 happiness at 30 weeks is easy to achieve by simply placing the required 10 parks/plazas.
You get 100,000 and all loans available at the start of the game, so you can easily afford the required parks and plazas

Clean Up Crew

Your first task in the Clean Up Crew scenario is to deal with the polluted water source that’s making your citizens ill.

This scenario places you in a city with many ill citizens due to a contaminated water source (the water pump is too close to the drain pipes).

Your task is to solve this issue, get the citizens healthy, and grow your population.

Win Conditions:

Population over 75,000
Average drinking water pollution under 1%
Average citizen health over 85%

Loss Conditions:

Have less than 0₡
Population under 1

Notes:

There are no time limits for any of the requirements, making this an easy scenario.
The water contamination is easily solved by purchasing an adjacent area tile and relocating the water pump away from the contamination.

Green Power

Green Power gives you an easy starting tile with a nice amount of flat land and a convenient river.

Your task is simply to grow a city while using “clean” energy sources (wind/solar/hydro/nuclear power).

Win Conditions:

Population over 50,000
Electricity production of 500 MW
100% of electricity production from renewable sources

Loss Conditions:

Have less than 1₡
100% of electricity production from polluting sources
Average ground pollution over 15%

Notes:

You’re allowed to use “dirty” (non-renewable) energy throughout the game; however the win condition will not be met until you’ve replaced them with clean energy.
Just make sure that your first energy source is a wind turbine. You’ll lose the game if you start with a coal or oil power plant (since your city would be 100% running on non-renewable energy).

Scenarios Quick Recap

Here’s a quick list of the requirements for each of the scenarios mentioned above & what you need to win them:

Scenario Name	Summary	DLC
Alpine Villages	Have 250,000 people using public transport in under 350 weeks.	Natural Disasters
By the Dam	Get 65,000 population in under 300 weeks, while dealing with flooding from an overflowing dam.
Floodland	Survive for 240 weeks while constantly rising water levels pose the risk of engulfing your town
Island Hopping	Get to 250,000 population on an archipelago map with not much land to build on
Tornado Country	Have 250,000 population and ₡1,000,000 while dealing with tornadoes.
Ferry Empire	Have 25,000 population and transport 250,000 passengers via ferries	Mass Transit
Fix the Traffic	Get 82% traffic flow in a city plagued with congestion and awful city planning.
Trains!	Construct 210 instances of Train Tracks and have 200,000 people use your trains
City of Gardens	Build 10 different park/plaza buildings and build 5,000 squares of organic and local produce specialization	Green Cities
Clean-up Crew	Clean up the city’s polluted water source, help citizens get back to good health, and grow the population to 75,000
Green Power!	Have a population of 50,000 and a city that runs entirely on renewable power

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Cities: Skylines Full Strategy Guide

Guide Navigation

Cities: Skylines
- Sphinx of Scenarios Unlock Guide (Cities: Skylines)

Liz Villegas

174 articles

Liz is a writer and photographer with a love for building and strategy games. Her spare time is often split between lifting, reading, drawing, annoying her dog Mr. Porky Butt, and squinting at stat tables on the wiki pages of whatever game she's currently playing.

View Writer's Posts →